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μελάγχροες. H. has already (57. 2) said the Egyptians were ‘black’; this was the usual Greek idea (so Aesch. Sup. 719); it is an exaggeration of the ‘brown’ colour; the Colchians were ‘black’ in the same sense; so Pind. Pyth. iv. 212 (376) calls them κελαινῶπες. The hair of the Colchians was short and curly, as contrasted with the lank locks (εὐθύτριχες, Arist. de G. A. v. 3, 782 B) of the Scyths. H.'s ideas of Egyptian appearance have been somewhat confused by the numerous negro slaves he saw in the streets of Memphis. As the Egyptians themselves shaved wholly or in part (36. 1 n.), the ‘woolly hair’ is the more inexplicable. Various attempts have been made to find a basis for H.'s ‘discovery’ (νοήσας πρότερον) of the identity of the Colchians with the Egyptians (cf. Wiedemann, p. 408); the least improbable is the suggestion that the Persian king had deported Egyptians to Colchis. But it is most likely a mistake altogether.

For circumcision in Egypt cf. 36. 3 n. H.'s method—to infer identity of race from similarity of custom—is modern, though its sufficiency is doubted; here certainly his conclusion is wrong. His information as to Phoenician usage in Greece (§ 4) is curious.

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